BHS CRIMINAL PROBE D-DAY
by BILLIONAIRE tycoon Sir Philip Green will find out in a few weeks whether there will be a criminal probe into the collapse of BHS.
His £100million yacht is cruising the Med as the 88-year-old chain vanishes with the loss of 11,000 jobs and a £571million black hole in its pension fund.
Shoppers are scrambling for bargains before the final 22 branches pull down their shutters for the last time today.
MPs have called for Sir Philip, 64, to be stripped of his knighthood after selling BHS for £1 to three-time hree-time bankrupt Dominic Chappelll l8 months ago.
And Labour MPP Frank Field, who has led a Parliamentaryarliamentary inquiry into the e collapse, believes the Serious rious Fraud Office will decide inn the next few weeks whether to launch a fullscale criminal investigation. estigation.
“They will make ke a preliminary finding by the end of September on n whether fraud wass committed by mis- leading people,” he sai said. The SF O said yesterday that i it is “reviewing material in its possession”. A spokesman ad added: “If the director consider considers there are reasonable ground grounds to suspect serious or complex fraud which meets his criteria, he will open a criminal investigation.”investiga The SFO p probe follows claimsclaim that Sir PhilipPh rushed sellings t he 164-store1 chain to ex-racing driver Mr Chappell, who had no experience of retail.
BHS’s failure, which has put the pensions of 22,000 former staff at risk, is also being probed by the Pension Regulator.
Yesterday it emerged Sir Philip could pay less than half the pension deficit.
A proposed deal with the Pension Regulator falls short of MPs’ demand that he should plug the entire deficit by handing over part of his personal fortune.
The Pension Regulator could be handed more regulatory powers to veto company sales in the wake of the BHS SHOPPERS yesterday slated Sir Philip Green as Britain’s last BHS stores closed. “He’s more interested in models and parties and buying his third boat,” said David Gibson, 50, at Wood Green BHS in north London. “It’s a real part of British life but he’s done nothing for years, or put money in.” He fondly recalled visiting the store with his grandparents. “But it’s the workers I feel really sorry for now,” he said. Pauline Brown, also 50, snapped up an 80 per cent saving on her 15-year-old son’s school uniform. “But I’m devastated it’s closing,” she said. Grace McHenry, 56, with a big bag of bargains, called the closure “immoral”. She said: “It’s intrinsically wrong. It’s not as if the store wasn’t making money.” collapse. An MPs’ report last month found Sir Philip had “extracted hundreds of millions of pounds from BHS”.
The lifeboat Pension Protection Fund has estimated it will cost at least £300million to provide for BHS’s pensioners.
As a secured creditor, Sir Philip will receive £35million he is owed if liquidators and administrators recover enough.
Sports Direct’s Mike Ashley has bought the BHS in St Helier, Jersey, for £18million. Primark has taken BHS stores in Canterbury, Leicester and Llandudno.